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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26912443">ix. for the greater good</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempestaurora/pseuds/tempestaurora'>tempestaurora</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>the kids aren't alright [whumptober 2020] [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Gen, Pre-Canon, Whump, Whumptober</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:27:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,977</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26912443</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempestaurora/pseuds/tempestaurora</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben “The Horror” Hargreeves, known as Number Six of The Umbrella Academy, died on a Tuesday.</p>
<p>This is how it happened.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ben Hargreeves &amp; The Hargreeves</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>the kids aren't alright [whumptober 2020] [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930186</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>ix. for the greater good</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompts: "Take Me Instead" | "Run!"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ben “The Horror” Hargreeves, known as Number Six of The Umbrella Academy, died on a Tuesday.</p>
<p>This is how it happened.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>First: there was light peeking through the gap between his curtains as the alarms rang in tandem across the seven bedrooms of the seven Umbrella Academy children. One bedroom, opposite Ben’s, was empty, and had been for three years, though the alarm rang anyway, like clockwork.</p>
<p>Ben rolled out of bed with great reluctance, planting his bare feet on the carpet and standing directly in that singular shard of light from the window. He clicked his alarm off and yawned before leaving his bedroom and wandering straight into the one opposite, as he did every day. Three years before, the alarm blaring in this room had been a nuisance; now it was just part of the house. The occupant of the room had not yet returned to turn it off, so Ben did it instead before wandering back to his own room, ignoring the rush for the bathroom.</p>
<p>He dressed into his uniform, combed his hair, and stole a moment in the bathroom before Vanya or Klaus was awake enough to get there first.</p>
<p>Then he descended down the stairs for breakfast, where they waited behind their chairs for their father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, to take up the far end’s seat. Every meal time a record played, and they were to eat in silence and listen. Often, the records detailed survival techniques, or combat, or excerpts from novels Reginald deemed necessary to their learning.</p>
<p>Today, it was <em>The Art of War.</em></p>
<p>Ben had already read it and let himself drift off into thought. He barely even looked at the empty seat opposite him as he ate the same breakfast he did every day, and he certainly didn’t look towards his father. He let his gaze drift to the windows, where grey clouds coalesced in the sky. Their birthday had happened recently and winter was now upon them, set in heavy and cold; perhaps soon, it would snow.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Second: after breakfast, the six remaining Umbrella Academy students went to their lessons. Grace taught them maths, science and geography before lunch as they sat in a semi-circle around her whiteboard and projector. Unlike in others places of the house, the seventh seat here had been removed.</p>
<p>Ben missed it sometimes; missed looking over and cheating on work, or having someone sat between he and Klaus. More than anything, he missed having the reminder that there <em>had </em>been a seventh child. Just like the chair at the dining room table and the alarm clock. There <em>was </em>a painting of their missing member in the lounge, but they all knew that was there more as a reminder of what disobedience would bring, rather than a sign that there had been a fifth brother at all.</p>
<p>They ate lunch, again in silence, before going to their afternoon training. They trained together daily, their father insisting that it would build teamwork. Ben was old enough now – sixteen last month – to realise that there was no amount of team training they could do that would break through the walls Reginald had built between them.</p>
<p>He was perceptive, Ben. He was always watching his siblings, always seeing the things that the others didn’t. He had taught himself to pick up on their tells; Klaus didn’t make eye contact when he lied; Allison, it was to be assumed, was always lying. Diego’s stammer got worse when he was feeling intense emotion; stress, hurt, fear; and Luther always looked to see Allison’s reaction to a joke before laughing himself. Their missing member, too, had been particularly quirky in the way he slouched when he was interested and shoved his hands in his pockets to seem more indifferent when he was truly intrigued.</p>
<p>Because Ben saw so much, he also saw that no matter their numbers or rank, Diego and Luther didn’t trust each other in the field because they were too busy trying to best each other. Reginald had trained them to be competitive, not collaborative, and so no matter how much they trained together, they were never on the same page.</p>
<p>It was like that for everyone and it was just the way The Umbrella Academy functioned.</p>
<p>Ben thought it wouldn’t last much longer. It <em>couldn’t. </em>It would implode and the shrapnel would probably slice all the way through their chests.</p>
<p>But they trained anyway, as they were told, and although Ben was the only member with the standing allowance to leave training if his power became overwhelming, he stayed throughout. When instructed, he called upon the eldritch horror to which he held the portal in his stomach, and let the scaly tentacles tear through his skin and flail around the room.</p>
<p>It wasn’t wild or reckless, but precise. Ben’s control of the tentacles had improved vastly over the years; they’d follow almost any command these days. The only one they were known to shirk was <em>Please, be nonlethal.</em></p>
<p>His siblings knew as much as they darted and dashed around the room, aiming to dodge and evade the eldritch nightmare’s limbs.</p>
<p>Of course, it doesn’t need saying that Vanya was not present. Vanya was <em>never </em>present for training and never would be. So there were only four targets, and that meant two tentacles to a sibling.</p>
<p>They only stopped when the alarm sounded.</p>
<p>It was lucky, too, because if they had gone on much longer, Ben was fairly sure he might’ve ripped Klaus’ leg off by mistake.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Third: the alarm signalled a mission and they raced to their rooms to change.</p>
<p>Vanya watched from her bedroom doorway as they stumbled about, pulling on the uncomfortable and tight black suits they’d started wearing when Reginald deemed the school uniforms unsafe for combat. It hadn’t stopped him for the first two years of the Umbrella Academy’s missions, but now they wore jumpsuits, even though all their photoshoots and interviews were done in the uniforms, as was every other aspect of their lives.</p>
<p>Ben checked himself in the mirror, made sure he looked presentable, and ran down the stairs on Diego’s heels to get to the foyer, where their father was waiting with the report.</p>
<p>“A hostage situation at the Mayor’s Offices downtown,” he said plainly. Ben peered over his shoulder as Klaus finally slouched down the stairs after Allison, who was jogging. “You are to get the hostages out safely, <em>especially </em>the Mayor, and deal with the culprits as necessary.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Fourth: they piled into the black car that their father had them arrive to every mission in. Often, they were not wanted. Ben knew this; Ben knew the police did not <em>want </em>children in their active crime scenes. They did not want vigilantes, even if they were more on the side of superheroes. Ben thought they’d also submitted a few reports about the ineffectual and dangerous parenting of Reginald Hargreeves, too; he’d heard their whispers about it, about how no matter how many times they raised concerns that a man was throwing six underage children in front of guns, nothing was ever done.</p>
<p>Ben had imagined what his life might be like if a social worker showed up on their doorstep to take them away. He wasn’t sure if he liked the idea of being separated from his siblings and sent to separate homes – ones that didn’t have the necessary safeguarding for an eldritch horror monster that twisted its way out of Ben’s stomach, occasionally without asking Ben first.</p>
<p>In the car, Luther and Diego bickered about the plan, as they were prone to do.</p>
<p>Klaus nudged Ben. “Look,” he said, holding up an origami animal in his hands. “It’s a peace crane. Nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine more of these, and we’ll have good luck for a year.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Fifth: they didn’t enter through the front of the building.</p>
<p>The Umbrella Academy were taught to enter through the back and stay hidden until their good work was done. <em>Then </em>they could reveal themselves to the police and the media, announcing that <em>Yes! The Umbrella Academy saves the day once more!</em></p>
<p>They took the service entrance and raced through concrete hallways until they found a double door leading to an empty cafeteria. Klaus swiped his finger through the frosting on an uneaten slice of cake as they passed through, finding themselves in the corridor.</p>
<p>“Stairwell,” Luther said, pointing to the left.</p>
<p>They climbed upwards, until they reached the level Reginald had told them about in the foyer. The Mayor’s Office was on this level. Ben didn’t know what these people wanted with the Mayor – but it probably wasn’t anything pretty. He also thought the Mayor might not appreciate seeing the Umbrella Academy, seeing as he disparaged them in the press, claiming they left too high a body count behind them.</p>
<p>There was a clear remedy to the situation, which involved leaving Ben out of it.</p>
<p>Reginald called him naïve and a coward when he brought it up.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sixth: they attacked.</p>
<p>Luther led them in and they split easily into groups of lower and higher numbers. Diego and Luther at the front of the charge, and Allison following immediately behind, picking off anyone who they missed. Klaus was more of a look out, these days, considering he seemed to always be a little high, and his powers hadn’t yet shown themselves to be particularly good at offence – but he was trained like all the rest of them, and knew how to direct hostages to different spaces, to usher them towards the doors.</p>
<p>And Ben was at the rear: the final man between the criminals and escape. They never used to let him take this role, to fight without the horror inside him. Originally, they’d throw him in a room and lock the door behind him; they’d let him tear people to pieces and parade him in front of the cameras, blood-soaked and traumatised. Early on, the press talked about him the most in relation to the legality of the Umbrella Academy and their actions, as well as the sort of danger Reginald was throwing them into – Ben covered in red was a warning to everyone about what might happen if the Umbrella Academy showed up to a crime scene they had no business being in.</p>
<p>Now, he used the monster rarely in combat – only for emergencies.</p>
<p>When one man split off from the pack, barrelling towards him, Ben didn’t call forth the writhing eldritch in his stomach; he side-stepped the target, caught his fist and twisted it sharply. He stood aside, swiped the gun from his holster, kicked out the back of his knee and smacked him across the jaw with the butt of his own gun.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Seventh: they were winning.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eighth: then, they were not.</p>
<p>What was a sure defeat of the targets turned suddenly against them. Allison had been knocked out a moment before, and Klaus had vanished with the hostages while the remaining students were in the Mayor’s office itself, where a man stood with a gun to the Mayor’s head and an explosive strapped to his vest.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Luther said slowly. It was at this point when Allison could’ve been especially helpful. One rumour and the situation would’ve been resolved.</p>
<p>“Leave,” the man with the bomb said, “and this doesn’t get messy.”</p>
<p>“You’ll kill the Mayor,” Diego replied, a fact.</p>
<p>“He killed my family.”</p>
<p>Ben raised his eyebrows. Diego blinked. “Like, physically? He physically killed your family?”</p>
<p>“He should surely be taken out of office at <em>least,</em>” Luther agreed.</p>
<p>“It was his policy! The factory on the West Side – it poisoned the water and killed <em>hundreds. </em>And he supported it!” The Mayor struggled through his bound hands and taped mouth.</p>
<p>“Uh—well, we can sort—”</p>
<p>“You can’t bring my family back!” the man yelled, cutting through Luther’s attempt at diplomacy. “No one can—you kids should get out of here, fast.”</p>
<p>“We can’t—”</p>
<p>“Then you’ll go up with the ole’ Mayor and me,” he said. The Mayor’s eyes were panicked, erratic.</p>
<p>Diego, Luther and Ben glanced at each other, making the decision. There was something definite in this man’s eyes – he was going to die today, no matter what they did. He was going to take the Mayor out at the same time if he could. It was their job to save the Mayor, yes – but it was also their job to save everyone else in this building; all the people who’d be crushed and killed by an explosion within the walls.</p>
<p>Diego could throw a knife; slice his throat open – but what would that do? Ben knew a dead man’s switch when he saw one. Killing this man would be killing all of them.</p>
<p>And Luther – he wouldn’t get there in time. He was strong, but not everything could be solved with brute force alone.</p>
<p>“Please,” Ben said, and the man’s gaze cut through him, sharp.</p>
<p>“I don’t wanna kill another kid,” he said, “so you get out of here now and let me do this in peace.”</p>
<p>“You know we can’t let you do this,” Ben replied. “You’ll take down the whole building.”</p>
<p>“It’ll send a clear message about what the people will withstand and what we <em>won’t.</em>”</p>
<p>Ben swallowed. The eldritch horror in his torso writhed at his skin, as if it was saying, <em>It’s time to let me out.</em></p>
<p>Ben glanced at Luther, at Diego. “Get Allison,” he said. “Take her and Klaus and get out.”</p>
<p>“Ben—”</p>
<p>“I’m more likely to survive the blast than you are,” he said, though he wasn’t sure how true that was. “Just take them and go.”</p>
<p>It took a moment, but they reluctantly stepped back, passing him with their worried gazes sliding over him.</p>
<p>“I’ll meet you outside,” Ben told them.</p>
<p>“We trust you,” Luther replied.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ninth: he was alone with the man who’d strapped a bomb to his chest.</p>
<p>“What’re you, invincible?” he questioned. “Got rock hard skin or something?”</p>
<p>Ben shook his head. “They call me The Horror.”</p>
<p>The man snorted. “What a shitty name for a kid.”</p>
<p>Ben agreed. “I didn’t choose it,” he replied.</p>
<p>“What would you have chosen, if you could?”</p>
<p>He hesitated, thinking the question over. “I don’t think I’d take a name at all,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t put on the suit, if I had the choice. I wouldn’t fight crime, or even be referred to as a number. I’d just be—Ben.”</p>
<p>“Ben,” the man said. “That’s a good name. My—my boy’s best friend’s a Ben.”</p>
<p>They cracked weak smiles at each other, knowing what was coming. Hopefully, Luther and Diego were getting Klaus and Allison out of the building, not to mention evacuating the lower levels. Surely, they’d already raced out at the beginning of the hostage situation, but they had failed to check if there were any targets on the lower levels before coming upstairs. They could be fighting all over again while Ben spoke to this man.</p>
<p>“You got a family, kid?” the man asked.</p>
<p>“The Academy’s my family.”</p>
<p>He quirked his eyebrows. “That’s not a family; that’s an old man’s jerk-off project.”</p>
<p>Ben couldn’t hold back the scoff; he agreed. “My siblings, then,” he amended. “The other numbers.”</p>
<p>“You’re all related?”</p>
<p>“Adopted,” he said. “Raised together. As much my brothers and sisters as if we’d been related by blood.”</p>
<p>“Then you better get outta here, kid,” the man told him. Then added: “Ben.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think I can do that.”</p>
<p>“I’ve lost my family, I know that pain. <em>This asshole </em>is gonna feel it – but you don’t gotta. You can walk away, and I’ll give you time to get out, and you can keep your family whole.” Ben thought of the missing sibling, vanishing after an argument with their father. Of the alarm that still rang every morning, though Ben was the one who set it every night; of the empty chair at the dining table, which Vanya placed a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich in front of before bed each day; of the painting and the missing seat in the classroom and the jump from four to six, a whole number missing.</p>
<p>He pictured the jump from four to seven, briefly.</p>
<p>He said, “I can’t let you destroy a building – the damage would kill more than just us. It’d crush people on the street, on the lower levels, on the <em>higher </em>ones. An explosive of that size could take out several floors.”</p>
<p>“Make the right choice, Ben,” the man told him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tenth: Ben made a choice. Whether it was the right one would be debated for the entirety of his afterlife.</p>
<p>The man knew when he’d made it, and sighed, and then let Ben run full pelt towards him as he triggered the bomb. Ben saw the shock on the man’s face when the eldritch horror tore out of his stomach and grabbed him, throwing all three of them out of the window and into the air, some twenty stories above the ground, where they ripped into a thousand pieces; a burning sun in the middle of downtown Manhattan.</p>
<p>The forty-three people still in the building, the three-hundred-and-eighty-four on the street below the explosion, and the four Umbrella Academy children still making their way down towards the service exit all lived that day, when they might not have otherwise.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ben “The Horror” Hargreeves, known as Number Six of The Umbrella Academy, woke up on a Thursday.</p>
<p>This is how it happened.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>First: as the first snow of the season fell and settled in the courtyard of the Umbrella Academy mansion in Manhattan on the day of Ben’s funeral, Klaus Hargreeves took a deep breath and focused until his hands pulsated a bright blue.</p>
<p>Ben, who’d been somewhere else entirely, appeared before him, and Klaus smiled.</p>
<p>Ben did too; he wasn’t ready to be away from his family just yet.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thanks for reading!!!!! pretty please talk to me in the comments!</p>
<p>tomorrow is all about my favourite couple in the show: eudora and diego</p></blockquote></div></div>
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